Can genetic engineering be part of sustainable agriculture?
Governments, businesses and some farm organizations are claiming that genetic engineering will help create a more sustainable agriculture – by reducing pesticide use and agricultural pollution, and increasing agricultural productivity and profitability. What proponents consider to be pesticide reduction receives the most attention. Most of the current products on the market or in development are for herbicide-resistant and BT-crops. Of the most recent list produced by the Union of Concerned Scientists on US existing and imminent commercialisations, 22 of 34 products fall into this category. Genetic engineering has the potential to solve problems. But, unfortunately, “biotechnology is being shaped within the same social context and value system that led to chemical dependence”1. It is deeply integrated into the same industrial agricultural economy that has created many current environmental, social and economic problems2. Molecular biology, on which biotechnology applications are based,
